eCommerce FAQs

Mountain Commerce Frequently Asked Questions

1. How is Mountain Commerce "Search Engine Friendly"?

Yes, Search Engine friendliness is built right in! Our cutting edge Mountain Commerce software is different from other solutions because it's 100% XHTML compliant. This means your site is free from the code errors that keep search engines from indexing your site. Error-free sites result in better search engine ranking, greater visibility, and more sales-producing traffic. Mountain Commerce takes search engine friendliness to the next level by generating unique title and meta tags on every page, creating keyword-rich file names (which search engines love), and strategically inserting keyword-rich ALT tags in the appropriate places.

2. Do you use templates to design my store?

No. Your business is unique and deserves a unique design concept, not to be put in the same old box. That's why every eCommerce package includes your own design concept. The design department at Mountain Media will work with you to refine a unique look and feel necessary for your online success.

3. Can I design my own site?

Yes. Already have a design concept in mind? Let Mountain Media’s design team work to incorporate your completed design or design ideas into a fully implemented and functional website.

Mountain Media maintains an in-house team of design professionals. They can assist you with development of a company logo, newsletter templates and overall branding to create a unique presence.

5. Do I need any special software to run my store using Mountain Commerce?

No. Mountain Commerce is a web-based application and can be accessed via any standard web browser. We recommend using Internet Explorer 6.0 and up, Firefox 2.0 and up or Safari 3.1 and up.

6. What programming languages are used to develop, customize or implement the Mountain Commerce platform?

Mountain Commerce is designed around FreeBSD, PHP and MySQL. This environment provides the security and reliability needed to power your complex eCommerce web site.

7. Does your system include a WYSIWYG Web page editor?

Yes. The editor enables you to add content and images to your web site without the use of html tags or "coding", thereby simplifying the process of updating content.

8. How many products can your platform support?

The platform can support unlimited products: from a boutique store to an online shopping mall.

9. In addition to the product name, what kinds of product description fields do you support? Do you allow merchant defined fields?

Mountain Commerce supports unique title tag, keyword, meta tag, and product description fields to help you get search engine visibility down to the product level. If your product catalog has unique parameters, the system can easily accommodate them.

10. Can individual products be set as taxable or non-taxable?

Yes, products can be set 'taxable' or 'non-taxable'. Additionally, customers can be designated 'tax-exempt'. There is even a field for the tax-exempt customers' Federal Tax ID. Note that sales tax is only calculated for orders that have a shipping address in a 'taxable' state.

11. What shipping services do you integrate with and what features are offered?

Mountain Media currently integrates with USPS, UPS and Fedex for real-time shipping rate quotes. Shipping label integration with tracking numbers is available for UPS. UPS provided printers as well as standard laser printers are supported. Shipping label integration with USPS is also available with our Endicia module. Mountain Media's Endicia module is a true integration, providing real-time label printing direct from the order fulfillment tools without any third party desktop software.

12. What shipping calculation methods can be used to determine shipping charges?

Mountain Media's shipping options are very flexible. Each shipping option defined by the merchant has parameters for controlling markup by flat-rate or percentage and can be made available to a minimum and/or maximum sale subtotal. Shipping options can be assigned by product as well. Additionally, real-time rate quotes based on weight and shipping destination of the order are available from UPS, USPS and Fedex. Using this combination of parameters it is possible to create unlimited shipping calculation configurations such as free shipping on orders over $x, real-time rate quotes with transparent handling charges added based on sale amount and just about anything else you can dream up.

13. Do you offer a gift certificate option and is it a 3rd party solution?

Yes. Our integrated gift certificate module (not 3rd party) can be used to create email-able gift certificates as well as "snail mail" paper gift certificates. Merchants can control denominations available and gift code format.

14. Do you offer a wish list option and is it a 3rd party solution?

Yes. Mountain Media's Wish List module (not 3rd party) is highly configurable--from a simple wish list to a sophisticated bridal (or other) registry. Multiple wish list types can be used concurrently and when used as a registry, the system tracks the quantities purchased and has configurable email messages.

15. Do you offer an affiliate module?

Yes. The affiliate module can be used to provide discounts to end-users, credit referrers, create coupon codes and more. Integrated affiliate reporting gives merchants the ability to see which affiliates and promotions are performing.

16. What marketing features are offered?

Mountain Commerce offers all the latest marketing and up-sell features including; gift certificate, wish list, tell-a-friend, featured and related products, all seamlessly integrated into one platform with no third-party solutions.

17. Do you have a mass emailing/newsletter module?

Yes. The back-end tools include an email/newsletter module so you can keep in touch with your customers and reach out to new ones.

18. Do you offer payment gateway services?

Yes, Mountain Media offers its' own secure payment gateway service.

19. What 3rd party order management systems are you integrated with?

Mountain Commerce currently integrates with several order management and shipping solution partners including Stone Edge, Mail Order Manager (MOM), Endicia Internet Postage, UPS and Fedex.Were constantly upgrading the Mountain Commerce software and looking to build strategic partnerships that allow us to conveniently deliver a variety of tightly integrated third-party solutions to our customers. Mountain Media also excels at building customized software solutions for interested parties. So, if theres a specific integration that you feel would build efficiencies for your business, please give us a call to discuss.

20. What customer notifications are automatically generated by your system?

Order placed, order shipped.

21. What kinds of statistics and reporting are available to the merchant?

Mountain Commerce offers robust reporting features and the flexibility to create custom reports. Complete web statistics are included as well.

22. Are your systems and processes PCI compliant?

Yes. Mountain Media was granted level 1 Payment Card Industry - Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) CISP certification by Visa in May of 2008, making us one of only a handful of hosted shopping cart solutions and payment gateway providers to achieve such distinguished status. We encourage you to read more about the importance of selecting a shopping cart solution that is PCI DSS compliant before making a decision about your ecommerce partner. You can learn more here: (http://www.mountainmedia.com/PCI-CISP-Compliance-c109.html)

23. Does Mountain Media offer hosting services?

Yes. Mountain Media offer various levels of hosting to deliver manageable, scalable and highly available environments for mission critical data networks. You can read more about our Albany based hosting services here: (http://www.mountainmedia.com/Web-Hosting-Services-c10.html)

24. What uptime does Mountain Media guarantee for my website?

Mountain Media’s goal is to achieve 100% website and server availability for all of our customers and to prove our commitment to the highest quality of service, we have enacted a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for our hosting customers which guarantees 99.9% up-time.

25. Does Mountain Commerce generate clean URL strings?

Yes, when adding pages and products to your Mountain Commerce Web site, the system will generate clean URLs, helping to make your store more visible in the search engines.

26. Does Mountain Commerce allow unique title and meta tags on every page?

Yes, Mountain Commerce provides an easy-to-use field system to add unique title and meta tags to your pages. If you leave these fields blank, the system will generate them automatically using category and product names and descriptions.

27. I have a unique business that requires a complex, customized site. Can you help me?

Absolutely. Mountain Media specializes in designing and developing complex, custom eCommerce solutions and Web sites. Wed be happy to discuss your unique needs and provide you with a tailor-made solution.

28. Is Mountain Commerce a SaaS (Software as a Solution) ecommerce solution?

Yes, Mountain Commerce is a hosted, licensable product and is provided in a SaaS model. SaaS (typically pronounced 'Sass') is a model of software deployment where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. By eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, SaaS alleviates the customer's burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. Using SaaS also can reduce the up-front expense of software purchases, through less costly, on-demand pricing.

29. What kind of customer support do you offer?

We offer live phone, email and forum support Monday through Friday 8:30 AM- 5:00 PM EST. You can contact our Saratoga Springs office at 518-583-0300 or toll free at 877-583-0300

30. Do you support product feeds to Google, Shopzilla and others?

Yes. Mountain Commerce supports various product feeds.

31. I have a large catalog; does Mountain Commerce have bulk product and image uploading capabilities?

Yes. Our flexible product import tool takes your tab-delimited file and turns it into a product catalog with support for multi-tier pricing, categories and more. This tool intelligently inserts new or updates existing products from the same file!The bulk image upload tool greatly speeds up the process of populating the images in a large catalog.

32. What type of training do you provide?

Mountain Media provides standard training with every Mountain Commerce implementation to give you the tools and information that youll need to maintain a successful store and utilize all of the Mountain Commerce features that will serve your unique business. Additionally, customized training programs are available in various disciplines such as; Search Engine Marketing, catalog development, building a successful eCommerce business and training for any integrated solutions or custom applications that we may build for you.

33. Do you offer Search Engine Optimization services?

Yes. Mountain Media’s experienced Internet Marketing department offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to improve your chances of being found by search engines and acquiring high rankings in multiple, well-defined searches. We accomplish this through search engine positioning and search engine optimization and we will perform the extensive research needed to design and develop a comprehensive marketing plan that best meets the needs of your unique business and goals.

Have a question? Speak with an expert. Call 1.877.583.0300 or Email us.

About Mountain Media

Since 1998, Mountain Media has been providing search engine optimization, website design, and eCommerce services to customers throughout the U.S. from their headquarters in Saratoga Springs, NY.